CORNELIS BISSCHOP (DORDRECHT 1630-1674)

This remarkable painting was universally regarded as a masterpiece by Nicolaes Maes until the middle of the last century and was exhibited as such in several seminal exhibitions held at the Royal Academy and Manchester City Art Gallery between 1910 and 1938. Doubts about the traditional attribution were first raised by Eduard Plietzsch, who proposed an alternative attribution to Maes' Dordrecht follower, Reynier Covyn (op. cit.). In the same year, Clotilde Briére-Misme perceptively suggested the painting was instead the work of Cornelis Bisschop, on account of an early watercolour copy by Johannes Pieter de Frey, said to be after Bisschop, which featured in auctions held in Amsterdam in 1789 and 1814 (op. cit.).
A further painted copy, said to be by Bisschop after Maes and with differences, was with H. Schlichte Bergen in 1969.